Podiatrists @ Placentia-Linda Foot & Ankle Group

The Top 10 Reasons to Choose Our Podiatry Office!

Over the last ten years the integrity of physicians and surgeons has been greatly affected by the economic changes of how physicians are paid.   Many Physicians are no longer able to make independent decisions about medical treatment because they are employees of a medical group or an HMO. In many cases, the cheapest doctor, is the doctor hired by the HMO or medical group and any consideration as to credentials or training is secondary. In many medical groups and HMOs, the patient never sees a doctor but a physician assistant who can only treat minor medical problems and the doctor (who supposed to be supervising the physician assistant) is too busy treating other patients.
There are exceptions in that the physician assistant is supervised correctly and provides an excellent level of care. However, the usual story with being treated in a medical group or HMO is that the medical problem does not receive definitive medical intervention until the medical problem has significantly worsened or intensified.  As a patient, if you have decided to purchase a PPO like insurance plan that lets you go to a doctor of your own choice, it is important to use some type of guideline in determining the level of medical care that your will receive. The following list has been developed to assist patients in finding a good physician or surgeon.

1. TIME WITH THE PATIENT:

The first question and the most important is how much time face to
face does the doctor take with the patient on new and established
office visits. The answer that you should hear is at least
one-half hour for a new office visit and established office visits.
For a patient to receive good medical care, the doctor
must understand your health history and perform a physical examination
and other medical tests to make a diagnosis. Five minutes
for a new and established office visit to achieve all of the
requirements to make a diagnosis, explain the treatment plan
and administer treatment is not possible unless shortcuts are
taken by the doctor at the patient's peril. If you get
five to ten minutes of the doctor's time, the doctor is not worth
your time as a patient. Think about if you are hospitalized for
a heart attack or a stroke, the pattern of treatment does not
change just because you are in the hospital and you will again
get five minutes of the Doctor's time.

2. BED SIDE MANNER AND APPEARANCE:

Is the doctor caring and friendly and professional in demeanor and
appearance. Patients do not have to go to a doctor that
is a cold fish and who looks like a slob. If the doctor
takes short cuts with his bedside manner and appearance, as a
patient, you can be assured that the doctor takes shortcuts with
your medical care and when performing surgery to insure that
you have the optimal recovery

3. PPO PREFERRED PROVIDER:

Is the doctor or surgeon on your PPO insurance or is the doctor actually an out-of-network provider.
There are many Doctor's offices that will tell the potential
patient that their office is a PPO Provider but in fact the Doctor
is an out-of-network provider. As a patient, if you get
fooled into going to a out-of-network provider, only after a
patient receives the insurance claim will the patient discover
that they are responsible for payment of an out-of-network deductible
of usually $250 and many of the medical services are not covered
by the Insurance Company. This situation occurs a lot where
Doctors are mainly treating HMO contracted patients and what
to treat out-of-network PPO patients to supplement their practice
income. As a PPO / POS patient, make sure the Doctor is
on your insurance plan or find a different Doctor. Many times
the Doctor is only an HMO provider and not a PPO provider so
it is important to ask specific questions.

HMO CONTRACTS:

Find a surgeon or doctor that limited HMO contracts if you have a PPO
insurance plan that lets you go to the doctor of your choice. In the case of a surgical specialist such as
an Orthopedic and Podiatric Surgeon, who has an HMO capitated
contract, typically the doctor receives in payment16 cents
per month per patient whether they treat the patient or not.
In addition, these doctors with HMO capitated contracts
must see many patients per day as part of their HMO contract
agreement and every patient gets treated the same HMO way. For
a doctor or surgeon with many HMO patients, it is extremely difficult
to change gears and treat PPO patients differently than HMO patients.
If the doctor has a HMOs, try finding another doctor.

5. NICE OFFICE STAFF:

Is the office staff nice on the phone and helpful in verifying your
insurance and in scheduling your appointment. If the office
staff is nasty, the staff will continue to be nasty even when
an emergency occurs and you need to speak with the Doctor.
Remember the Doctor hired the nasty staff and usually it is to
squeeze every dime out of the patient while the Doctor plays
stupid about who he or she hired. If the staff is nasty
to you on the phone, find an office where you are treated as
a patient who needs your pain relieved and not aggravated by
the attitude of the office staff.

6. SMALL GROUP PRACTICE:

The doctor should be in a small group practice of two to five doctors. Large group practices
treat large numbers of patients and have less time for individuals.
This fact is especially important if you need to reach the doctor
about a medical problem and get a stand-in who has no concern
for your problem like care provided by your treating doctor.

7. ONE LOCATION:

The doctor should be in practice at one location or in very close
proximity to a second location. The doctor should not have
different locations spread out all over the region. If
a problem occurs after treatment, you need to know your doctor
is not 50 miles away at his or her other location.

8. BOARD CERTIFIED:

The doctor should be board certified
by a certifying board that has title of American Board
of __________; such as the American Board of Podiatric Surgery.
Because there are many mail-in certificates for board certification
today, there are many fraudulent certifications stated in advertisements.
As with most surgical specialties, certification by one
of the American Boards insures that the public can rely on the
fact the surgeon is well trained and qualified. In the
case of Podiatric Surgeons, the Doctor should be board certified
by the American Board of Podiatric Surgery and not by the many
Boards that were created because the Doctor could not pass the
exam for the American Board of Podiatric Surgery. In the
case of Doctor who is board certified by the American Board of
Podiatric Surgery, the doctor must have been in practice for
five years after completing an approved surgical residency training
program, had successfully completed many different types of foot
and ankle surgeries and passed both oral and written examinations
that encompass every aspect of foot surgery. Drs. Mark
and Melanie Reed completed their podiatry training at the USC/LA
County Medical Campus and completed their residency training
at the UCSF/VASF campuses in San Francisco before entering practice
in 1990 and becoming ABPS board certified in 1995.

9. RESIDENCY TRAINING:

Is the doctor residency trained in the area of specialization for your medical problem? As
an example, there are only a few orthopedic doctors with training
in hand surgery, but just about every Orthopedic Surgeon performs
carpal tunnel releases. As an additional example, there
are only a few Orthopedic Surgeons who have Fellowships in Foot
Surgery, but just about every Orthopedic Surgeon will perform
a bunion correction. Today, there are many doctors who
hide behind their white coats pretending to be a Jack of All
Joints at the peril of the patient. As a patient, if you
can choose your own doctor, make sure you are going to a true
specialist for your medical problem.

10. USA EDUCATED:

As a patient, you should understand
that there is a significant difference in education and training
for foreign trained doctors compared to USA trained doctors and
physicians. As a patient, you should be aware that there
has been an explosion of foreign trained doctors in HMOs in recent
years because these Doctors are willing to accept less pay and
will follow the profit driven dictates of the HMO to restrict
patient access from expensive tests and / or medicines.
There are exceptional foreign trained doctors but generally only
seek out USA trained doctors.